{"id":5040,"date":"2020-05-05T09:05:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T17:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/?p=5040"},"modified":"2020-05-05T09:05:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T17:05:46","slug":"independent-reading-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/2020\/05\/05\/independent-reading-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent Reading Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Better together&#8221; is a phrase that you hear every now and then and more often than not, you might be thinking of a marriage or friendship relationship, but maybe (just maybe) it&#8217;s your teaching peers that make you better. I thought of it when I heard about this independent reading unit being taught by some educators at Mountain View High School.  A couple of language arts teachers, Jeremy Rubenstein and Megan Medley, along with their teacher-librarian, Donna Layne, have worked together on implementing a unit that Rubenstein created. It&#8217;s an independent reading unit paired with a writing assignment. The students get to choose a book to read and a group to be in, and then they meet virtually to hold <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1wzTz-70q1S33NPXQwEQRs1OdHZ6hbGaFvAYK0SGub9o\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\">book group discussions<\/a>. Some of the more popular book choices are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/download.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5050\" width=\"116\" height=\"175\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/9780345445605_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5051\" width=\"117\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/9780345445605_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg 266w, https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/9780345445605_p0_v1_s550x406-197x300.jpg 197w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 117px) 100vw, 117px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Salt to the Sea<\/em><\/li><li><em>The Hobbit<\/em><\/li><li><em>The Scythe series (Scythe, The Thunderhead, The Toll)<\/em><\/li><li><em>Ender&#8217;s Game<\/em><\/li><li><em>A Fault in Our Stars<\/em><\/li><li><em>The Sun is Also a Star<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/B1GVYTTkcQS._SY300_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5052\" width=\"151\" height=\"124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/B1GVYTTkcQS._SY300_.jpg 366w, https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/B1GVYTTkcQS._SY300_-300x246.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/B1GVYTTkcQS._SY300_-100x83.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 151px) 100vw, 151px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/download-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5071\" width=\"106\" height=\"161\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/download-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5073\" width=\"106\" height=\"156\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/files\/2020\/05\/download-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5072\" width=\"105\" height=\"157\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The writing assignment gets interesting because the students have to argue whether or not the book they chose to read should be adopted as a core text for either 9th or 10th grade. What a fabulous idea! There&#8217;s some critical thinking going on here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The classes held <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1unfEWTQA6nD8kFcwSYUoTODgqc_z23cMgThU7bBq-As\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\">brainstorming sessions<\/a> in WebEx meetings to think of all the criteria that should be considered when coming up with a core text. Layne came as a guest to these WebEx sessions and gave some key ideas about what goes into choosing a core text. Speaking of guests, have you thought about inviting your librarian to participate in your class WebEx meetings? They are great collaborators and can give a plethora of book recommendations, not to mention resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Better together&#8221; is a phrase that you hear every now and then and more often than not, you might be thinking of a marriage or friendship relationship, but maybe (just maybe) it&#8217;s your teaching peers that make you better. I <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/2020\/05\/05\/independent-reading-unit\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Independent Reading Unit<\/span><span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":5083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stc_notifier_status":"sent","_stc_notifier_sent_time":"2020-05-05 09:15:53","_stc_notifier_request":false,"_stc_notifier_prevent":false,"_stc_subscriber_keywords":"","_stc_subscriber_search_areas":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3853,3852],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school","category-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5040"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5089,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5040\/revisions\/5089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/instructionaltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}